Waterloo, Ont. (Wednesday, December 21, 2016) — Researchers from the Institute for Quantum Computing at the University of Waterloo in Canada are the first to transmit a quantum key securely from a source on the ground to a receiver on an aircraft. The uplink is a prototype for secure quantum communication and shows the viability of the team’s quantum communication satellite mission (QEYSSat) proposal.

A team of researchers from the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) has developed a process for reshaping the entanglement of two photons, demonstrating a new set of tools useful for quantum-state engineering.

The Bell test seeks to catch quantum particles “talking” to each other by matching their answers (output), to the questions asked (measurement). Unpredictable and independent input is one condition needed to perform Bell test experiments. Last week, the BIG Bell Test (BBT) brought true human unpredictability and randomness to the first ever human-driven Bell test.

The Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) program has awarded more than $11 million to the University of Waterloo which includes $1.7 million to an affiliate of the Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC).